Chair

Jack Woodward

Liverpool Universities' SSAGO

Hi, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jack, and I’ve been SSAGO’s secretary for the last year. Before that, I was the do everything person at CentenaRally, Co-chair of Rally of Games, President of LUSSAGO 2021/22, and Treasurer in 2020/21. I also helped restart the Policy Fixers Project, including acting as its chair until taking my role as Secretary last year.

Beyond SSAGO, I volunteer at a Scout troop at home, and an Explorer unit in Liverpool, I’ve also got involved with the Scouts 14-24 Redesign Project – since comparing my time in SSAGO against my time in Network has made me passionate about developing successful 18+ provision in Scouting; it’s also a role I’ve used to promote SSAGO to those at the upper levels of the Scouts Programme team.

And beyond Scouting, I’m now in the first year of my PhD in materials engineering, still at the University of Liverpool, studying the glass used for long term storage of nuclear waste.

 

While I’d like to think I’ve done a pretty good job as secretary, I do feel like it’s time to step up to Chair, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, and perhaps somewhat selfishly, I’ve really enjoyed my time on Team Pink, and I really want to carry on! But we each only have so much capacity, and so some responsibilities land with one role over another, and I’m really interested in moving over to a lot of the more traditional “chair” roles that James has been looking after this year – I’d really like to be more directly involved with working with Scouting, and in particular Guiding, who we’ve struggled to contact this year, for one. I also don’t massively enjoy writing minutes – I hope you’ll agree that I’ve done a fairly good job of it, and that nothing has been too badly delayed or inaccurate, but I find it difficult to contribute to a discussion that I’m minuting, and that’s something I’d like to do more of.

 

Secondly, continuity. In Liverpool, and in many other clubs, we have an informal rule where the president of the club should have been on committee before. It means we get more continuity between committees (particularly relevant at a time where some assistants are leaving, and the whole structure of the assistants is being discussed). It also means that the person leading the committee knows what to expect, and it gives members confidence that that person knows what they’re getting themselves in for, and that they’re capable of following through with that commitment. I have that first-hand knowledge of what to expect from being on exec, and I know what kind of commitment it takes, and more importantly, I know that I can meet it!

 

Finally, as you might be able to tell, I’m really passionate about SSAGO, which I think is vital for every role on Team Pink, but especially the chair. I do think SSAGO is great, but it’s not perfect, and I want to strive to make everyone’s experience of SSAGO as great as I’ve found mine to be, if not better. That’s why I’d really like to work more on events, and hand in hand with that, cross-club collaboration – 2 things which I think are the best parts of SSAGO. Firstly, by continuing something I started this year and promoting working together in regions to do more cross-club activity, then also by encouraging more people to get involved in organising open SSAGO-wide events like the Revolution contingents and the trip to Kander100. I’d also like to encourage more projects to run events (like SSROB did quite successfully last year), which should help get more people engaged with projects too. I’d also like to work more closely with the Events officer than I have this year, to make sure that event committees get the support they need to run amazing events!

 

I’d also like to challenge some of the negative perceptions of both being on Team Pink, and being on an event committee - I think there's a general narrative that exec is a lot of work for no reward, that everyone who does it hates it, and that deciding to join exec is a terrible idea. I think there's a similar thing for events, to a lesser extent - the idea you have to be crazy to want to do them. Yes, they’re both a lot of work, but I also find both sets of roles really enjoyable, and really fulfilling. I’ve been on 2 national event committees, and I don’t regret any of it. I definitely learned a lot from running Rally of Games, and I implemented that and learned more from running CentenaRally, and those are skills I’m really glad to have for the future. The same is, I think, true for my time on Team Pink so far – I’m running again, after all. It’s absolutely a lot of work, but it’s also very interesting work, and I’ve learned a lot from it, while also really enjoying it. Even though exec are at the top of the organisation, I’ve always felt like there was someone I could ask for help or support with anything that was challenging. I’m really glad to have been able to learn from my mistakes, both with events and with exec, in an environment like SSAGO, where everyone will enjoy it anyway, and when things do go badly wrong, everyone’s an adult, most people are understanding, and there’s usually someone around who can help.

 

I’d encourage anyone that might be interested but isn’t sure to give it a real think, and if you’re reading this before nominations close, I’m happy to have a chat with you about what’s involved and whether it’s right for you. (And I’ll try and be honest about it even if you’re also planning on running for chair, but you may also want to reach out to former chairs, who I’m sure would be happy to talk about their experiences!)